How to be a good bus-spotter: A guide

tintinspartan SG

I'm making a guide here for those who want to take up bus-spotting as a hobby.

First Thing you might do is research. For example, you want to ride a Volvo B10M Mark II. Go to sgwiki and research on route deployments. See if your desire-to-ride bus is on which service. Consider the route pattern. If you want to ride a bus on a highway, take all the service numbers that your desired buses are in. Scout the route out on SBS Service number enquiry or SMRT Electronic Bus Guide.

Things you need:

A good bus-spotter would never go out on an empty stomach. Have a sumptuos lunch but don't eat too much. If you are bus-stopping after work or school, have a meal first before you head out. You don't want to have an empty stomach waiting for a desired bus. Bring a snack or two for reserves in case you get hungry waiting.

Next, is judging what time it will arrive. If you are riding a desired bus on a low-demand route, it's frequency will tend to be long (27-59 mins). If you are riding it on a high-demand route, the frequency would be about 5 - 12 minutes. If there's a bus timetable at the bus stop, refer to it.

Bring a camera. If you want to take a picture of the bus, you might want to use a high quality mobile phone camera. It will no cause suspicion among others. If not, be brave if you are taking it on a SLR camera or digital camera.

Lady luck. Sometimes, luck could help you. Sometimes, your desired bus may be on another service, let's say your regular neighbourhood service filled with Bendy buses. One day, you see your desired bus making an unexpected cameo on it. Cameo is a bus lingo meaning, 'a spare bus which replaces a faulty perm bus. Some service timetables require a certain bus to do 2 services back to back.

Choose a comfortable bus stop. Wait for your desired bus to arrive. Just don't choose the wrong bus stop at the wrong time. If you do, the bus captain will be very suspicious.

Be a curious fox. Try to predict which bus would come out first. If you see your bus just arriving at the bus interchange, see what service it's on and spot other buses which are on that service. If you spot that bus was on that service only, you could wait or have a toilet-break. If there's two to three buses, you can have a comfortable meal without rushing. It depends on the service frequency. Try to time each bus departure on the service. I recommend 5 minutes for feeders and 10 minutes for trunk services. low passenger demad services could be timed at 15-25 minutes.

Get a concession or season pass. Use the advantage of unlimited rides benefit. This would save money from wasting it on fares for bus-spotting.

If you have all this, you're on your way to become a good bus-spotter. Wink

SBS9889U SG

I see u r a very good bus spotter

SBS1985C SG

X2.

service_238 SG

well it depends on what type of bus spotter you are..

you can spot

1. any bus rego of that model
2. a specific bus rego
3. a cameo (combination of both 1 and 2)

Cameo spottings be it rare or not are a good gauge of your spotting skills, spotting buses of a certain model serves as a value added thing in your spotting skills.

say for example you receive information or you spot a bus in the mid afternoon around 4pm and at that moment you are not able to spot the bus immediately. So what you do is to calculate the time taken from that spot to the interchange or looping point, and back to the other interchange.

and timing is very important, 4pm is a common time for split shift buses to gear into action. So whether the cameo is on split shift or full day depends on your estimation as well as whether you know who drives the bus. Always assume the bus is on split shift. This gives you more kick into spotting that bus asap as well as snapping the bus.

Last time i used to estimate the timings and all but now with iris its so much easier to spot buses, be it B9 or not. Laughing In addition, e-timetables on the sbst website helps also.

brotherchen1982 SG

Agree to service_238

BusSpeeder SG

hmmmm nobody here made a bus-guide before except tintin???? i think this is the first one yet and made by a 14 year old kid. Well done!

TWS4793 SG

For cameo spotting, if no one gives you info on the rare cameo, it has to depend on your luck to catch it. It also depends on what you decide to do next.

The other day I did not even know that SBS 7409K was cameo on Service 14 (rare for Service 14 to get B9 cameos) until I got to Bedok Interchange. It was actually a decision made by me to go back to Bedok Interchange after I helped catch a photo of SBS 1985C on Service 28. So I was lucky enough to catch something like this:

Well, something to make the bus fans (us) happy.

ZYX2005 SG

i see most of the tips re laid out.

reminders:
if u have a desired target, aim for it. however one has to be patient in order to get the target. sometimes the wait can be long nd u my not know it. therefore there is always the need for PLAN B.

PLAN Bs are important so that u dun waste your time. for me that simple means going to the bus stop that has good sunlight direction so s to catch pix of buses or tht bus stop hve other targets i would like to spot (in this case spot = take the bus)

reminders:
tracking your target.

most routes in Singpore bi directional. So if u see your target has gone by but (oh dear) on the wrong side of the road. always be prepared to ride bus on the target service down long the route till u localized ur target. after that it is a matter of waiting for the bus to come or u take a bus n chase it till int and spot it.

knowing the sequence of buses before the target is always good. however due to meal breaks etc prepare for the likely event that buses may jump out of sequence. to me this is rare.

knowing the sequence can be helped by noting which bus model n what d it carries comes before target. this is good if u have bit of knowledge of the ads on that service. sometimes when i see a bus i instinctively know what rego it could be based on its advert.

reminders:
knowing how the service operate may save ur waiting time. for exmple we know the gassies only come out during peakand from specific start points. in old school style, i used to rely on observations but today there are timesheets online for refer

i still do it old school style. camp n wait + cross fingers.

reminders:
cameo

cameo is not fun once someone has reported it to u. but sometimes tasty cmeos can give u the urge to drop wht u r doing n jsut grab the new target.

spotting ur own cameos is a matter of pure dumb luck.

spotting styles
(1) for me i use the traditional hop drop spot

hop to the bus stop. drop ur bag and camp. and spot the bus

i then use the target to hop to the next bus stop and camp there for another target.

i have learnt not to be stubborn n stick to a stop when the going is not..going well. always be prepared to walk to another bus stop.

(2) sometimes i go for the joyride mode. that one mens takingany bus on the service to view the scenery on the route. joyride mode is used if a new service is launched. by its definition joyride simplymeans u take the bus n enjoyn not spot any targets.

(3) investigative mode. you note down the buses on the routen plan for ur next spotting session. good if u wish to fmilirse with the regon ads on the bus service or if u r spotting crossovers. investigativemode is photo intensive u stand theren jsut shoot pics sometimes.

(4)picture mode

this one is obvious. u are the photographer type bus spotte rn u go find good spots..maybe shady trees or wide open backlit spot etc at junctions and snap great pix of bus. also u tend to take pics of target u want. and not just ny bus tht comes along on the camping spot.

you will need to be a good runner as u may sometimes have to chase ur target if u want its pic or missed a shot.

(5) memories mode

basically a special form of picture mode. u capture the pic of bus to be withdrawn with memorable back drops and backgrounds for ur memories collection.

it is possible to mix n mathc any mode of bus spotting anyone wants. umight even have ur own modes.

things to bring:
besides food. which i dunt bring. i bring loads of water lest you is dry up in the hot sun. health is important n u have to have lots of water. clean water is important. u should not proceed to a toiletn drink out of the tap. always scout out malls with water coolers and use them as toilet stops n break stops.

there is no need for a heavy bus guide or street directory once u know the area well or your bus routes well. but do bring if u have no sense of direction.

checksheets n recording of photos equipment

SBS3625D SG

Laughing I never bothered myself with all these.......for me, spotting bus = when spotted bus. i.e I spot buses when I see one. Cameos don't usually catch my attention unless it's really interesting ones.

Taking pics is the only time I really planned, and yes, like ZYX mentioned, plan B is important, but my plan B = taking pics of other buses in different locations. Laughing

SBS9889U SG

Still remember last time i tot a rare VO3 (SBS 9603) on Sv93 would appear towards eunos direction then in the end i saw it at the opposite then i chiong pass overhead bridge and came down but only managed to get a cropped off pic and my ankle suffered from injury(When i chased behind the bus to the next bus stop which was quite near) Crying or Very sad

ZYX2005 SG

when chasing bus please take care not to injure urself

health is more important than a shot at the bus. if miss shot just suck thumb neve rmind one.

ZYX

TIB1186Z SG

A mental list of standard locations & their favourable timings & season helps too. For example one knows got this target on service X so can go this spot A and camp for it to arrive to get a pix in good sunlight & angle. The distance to get to the spot in time from one's current location & associated risks in getting the picture would easily narrow down the choices available.

I like SBST because the bus stays fixed on the particular slot most of the time, and thus the timing can be reused again and again until one succeeds =D Particularly useful for advertisements & special buses such as 9889U. Of course, swaps occur frequently and can be quite annoying...but its still better than SMRTB where the deployment is like a wildcard sometimes.

TIB1049L SG

1) Spot buses whenever you go, no matter where you are. I do that while in another bus, MRT or even walking down the road or to the escalator (in WRI). I don't camp in interchanges because I am still schooling and have much more stuff to do. Regos can be seen on the MRT, but if you are not sharp-eyed or have fast reaction you would get the numbers wrong (like me, especially SBST regos)

2) I agree that knowing the timing is good, especially for those with has one type of bus in its perm fleet (Example is svc. 911). If you happen to live in a flat right beside a bus stop or road you can just listen to the gearbox sound to differenciate them. Tried this on Service 900 perms and it works, but you would have to remember the order of gearbox sounds if you don't bother to look down. (reminds me of remembering, Voith, ZF, ZF, Voith one day :lol Smile

3) Recognize buses by ads. Example TIB1049L is the only Habit with Ban Leong Pawnshop side ad. so remember it for easy reference when it cameos

4) Take a notebook along to write down the numbers. use your memory you will make your brain suffer, though I do that frequently

5) Beat the Boredom. Take some friends out with you so that you can chat while spotting cameos. Just don't talk till you forget your motive there.

6) Don't spot at the bus stop with like 1 service on it. Go to the one with the most services on it. For me when I go home from school I don't take 911 from the bus stop outside because I know the next nearest bus stop serves every single service coming out from WRI in that direction. The best thing to do is to go to the bus stop outside the interchange

7) Want to relax while spotting cameos? Go to a bus stop where a coffee shop is just right beside it. You can drink coffee, eat roti-prata while sitting down spotting cameos

Cool For photographers: Try not to capture the Bus Stop in the shot. Looks obstructing. For beginners maybe they would like to go to bus stops where there isn't a shelter and is just located beside shophouses. The metal pole which shows all the services denotes the bus stop, however these bus stops may be extremely crowded so be careful. These type of bus stops are still around in the Aljunied area

service_238 SG

That's old school which i noted that some forumites here use a notebook or school handbook to note down rides and cameos. I recommend the handphone. In order to record down cameos fast you need to be familiar with your phone's messaging keyset.

There's a number of places where the coffee shop or food centre is next to the interchange, terminal or bus stop. Best if you bring a friend along... say for example some rare cameo or bus with an advert u wanna snap you can just spring into action and snap. but of course please take care of yourself.. dont knock down people or sprain your ankle or fall down on the pavement while getting the cameo.

Bus stops are still applicable but it depends on which bus stop. I dont recommend bus stops that are next to shophouses (i.e no shelter). How about bus stops where you can sit in the bus stop shade and snap pictures? At the same time need not worry about much human traffic. Try midday or early afternoon at Carrefour bus stop at Temasek Ave. Angle of the bus varies though.. I cant think of any other bus stop at the moment but there's some of these around. Smile

TIB1049L SG

Well, handphones are not applicable to me because my phone has really small buttons, and in the Interchange i would have to look up quite a lot of times to make sure I spot more cameos. So happened that I ended up punching on the handset instead of the buttons and everyone looked at me as if I was a lunatic Laughing

As for Food Centre outside Bus Stop, there is just one located one stop outside WRI. However, the big problem is the lack of services stopping there. (901, 912, 962, 161, 168 stops there only) as compared to the other bus stops one stop down from WRI. However the food istelf is worth it for cameo spottings or whatever. And most probably you will end up eating instead of spotting buses Wink

SBS9888Y SG

not true..i used to use hp..but now i dun have one so use notebook lo..old fashioned but still handy..but prefer hp still..easier to store

MyPillowTalks SG

Well, something to make the bus fans (us) happy.[/b][/quote]

Service number 2 to changi village have this bus, i sat before